sweet, half-darkness

The advance materials for this second production from Genesis Ensemble, which pledges not to produce plays but to “devise work,” hint at what could be heavy-handed conceptualizing of life’s choices and crossroads. Instead the piece, after an impressionistic prologue, grounds itself in the very real and tense setting of a funeral. There, imaginings are refracted into the fascinating observation of friends and family grappling with the identities forged in their past and by each other.

After her husband’s sudden death, Lucy (a grave and compelling Lindsey Barlag) is not “acting like Lucy”; she dons a blue dress for the funeral and confides that she feels almost happy. Like the character in Kate Chopin’s The Awakening—cited as one of the production’s inspirations—Lucy is bound by expectation but longs to forge a new identity in the crucible of her husband’s demise. We see hints of the other characters’ strictures as well; particularly well-conveyed is Sergio Soltero’s Alex, whose wry discomfort as Lucy’s “lunch friend” from work is delightful and unaffected. But beyond a blazing monologue, we never really understand what actually bound Lucy, or where she wants to go. Additionally, the work’s energy is diverted by a late and too-long foray that’s more actorly exercise than substantial and inventive devising.

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